- What is your favorite way to spend your free time in Nashville?

- [Marita] I love Predators.

I'm Russian, I love hockey, I love Percy Warner, and I'm also a foodie, so you will find me at a lot of local places and farmer's markets.

That is my happy place.

(light upbeat music) - Hi, I'm Meg, executive producer at Nashville Public Television, and on this series we talk about the little things that stood out to folks when they first moved to the region from another country.

And today I'm here with Marita Velikova.

Marita moved to the US from Surgut Western Siberia, Russia.

Marita is a professor, and she enjoys off the beaten path travel, art exhibits, foreign films, as well as classic Russian literature.

And your happy place, as you said, is in the kitchen and cooking, and welcoming friends to your space, and you have welcomed me here today.

- [Marita] Absolutely, you are most welcome.

- Which I so appreciate.

And we are gonna talk about all things culture.

One random thing I wanted to ask you about, my mother went to Russia in the 90s and she went to the ballet, and she was so surprised, because she saw people like getting up outta their seats and like cheering, and like treating it like like she would've seen people at a football game, getting very emotional.

So how important are the arts in Russia?

What have you noticed?

- You know, I would say like the arts, and even you, like you said, you know, I'm an economics professor, but I love art exhibits.

- [Megan] Yeah.

- Art is so important to Russian people, because art has always been, you know, if you look at our history, we have always been repressed.

It's doesn't matter which medium of art, but it was a way for people to express themselves, right?

That was the only area where maybe they felt somewhat free, and I think that's why there is such a strong connection between art and people, because it's not just for higher income people to enjoy as a luxury, but it was a connection for all the people of how we all felt.

There is still that very strong connection to art even despite the sanctions and the tragedy of war, that for people, still art is that way to forget about so many sad things and so many tragic things.

So there's still a very strong connection and appreciation of art.

- I'm sure we might get comments about, "Why are you talking about Russia right now?"

And people have a lot of feelings about you know, the political side of things and war.

Is there anything you say our viewers about what you've been feeling?

- You know, I will just say like we as people, right?

We don't have any influence over the political decisions of our leaders.

And what I would say that the decisions by political leaders, they don't determine who people are.

And that is something I will say.

I know that I think like because of this conflict, there is now I think just a very understandable emotional response when you say anything Russian.

We have negative associations or we have sad emotions.

People of Russia, they're just like people of any nation and any state and any country.

They are beautiful people just like us.

- One thing that you mentioned to me a while back was this difference related to birthdays.

Could you tell us a little bit about that?

- Mm-hmm.

So if you are invited to birthday party here, so the expectation is that people who are invited are gonna treat the birthday person, right?

Whether it's a meal, multiple shots, a glass of wine, whatnot, right?

So in Russia, if I am going to invite a group of friends for my birthday, so most people still prefer to invite to their home.

So there will be a table full of different dishes, and a lot of food and there will be toast.

But if I'm to invite you to, let's say a restaurant, right?

So then I will be responsible to pick up the bill for the table.

- For everybody?

- For everybody, and that is the kind of- - Do you keep your birthday invitation list small then, or not necessarily?

- Depends on your budget, depends on your budget.

- Okay, all right.

- But then what happens, people who come, they know that they don't have have to pay for a meal.

So they will bring really nice gifts, and then I will treat everyone because it basically thank you for honoring me with your presents, and I am welcoming you, and I want to share this meal in honor of my birthday with my friends.

- Okay, I love that.

Well, and so here we have some tea I thought we might try today that I picked up at a local market.

With a meal in the US, we have ice water.

Is that traditional in Russia, or would you maybe have tea more?

'Cause I know you said tea was kind of a popular thing.

- So we drink the room temperature water.

- Okay.

- We do not drink ice water.

And my friends always tease me, because when they bring water, I'll be always the one, "Uh, can I have water with no ice, please?"

Even I've been in the United States since 2002, but some things just do not change.

- You're like, "It's winter, what?"

- Yeah, room temperature water, and then we love warm drinks.

Even maybe partial because where I'm from, our winter is almost like from October to April.

So it's a very cold and long winter.

So the first thing they say Russian tea.

So what is a Russian tea from English tea?

So English tea will be with milk.

Russian tea is going to be with lemons and honey.

- And we have some honey.

- We do have lemons as well.

We just forgot to cut them.

But we do have real Russian honey.

I actually brought it from home.

- It's very solid, yeah.

- And this is what it looks like.

It is a very solid, unfiltered Russian honey that we will take.

- Can we?

- Yes, yes, yes, yes.

And then just take as much much as you would like, and put some in your cup, and that is the traditional way to, it's a Russian way of drinking tea, honey and lemon.

- Yeah, is this like a crazy amount or is that all right?

- That's perfect, that is perfect.

And so that's the kind of the Russian way, because we believe lemons has vitamin C natural immune booster.

- Yeah.

- And honey is good for everything.

Like it's just good for everything.

- Honey is so underrated.

People need to talk about honey more.

- So that's the Russian way.

And then even in addition to lemon and honey, we'll always serve something.

It can be Russian chocolates, it can be Russian cakes, it can be Russian cookies.

So today we have chocolate waffle cake.

It's got some hazelnut, it's got some chocolate, it's got some waffle.

Okay, well, Megan, I want you to try it, and tell me what you think about it.

- [Megan] I like it.

- You like it?

It's not too sweet.

- It's got peanut butter, right?

- It's got like a little bit of peanuts there as well.

- I feel like this is similar to some sweets that I've seen in the US too.

So this is pretty, yeah, an American palette.

I feel like this is right at home in the pantry.

- [Marita] I like that.

- The last question I had for you today is what is your favorite way to spend your free time in Nashville?

- Free time in Nashville, okay.

So I live not too far away from Belcourt Theatre.

- Okay, cool.

- I love Belcourt Theatre.

I love Ryman Auditorium.

- [Megan] Iconic.

- [Marita] It's so iconic and unique.

I love Predators.

I'm Russian, I love hockey, I love Percy Warner, and I'm also a foodie, so you will find me at a lot of local places and farmer's markets.

I love farmer's markets.

My favorite is Saturday, a regional farmer's market on Charlotte by the library.

Oh, I love it.

That is my happy place.

(smooth music) - It's been such a treat to get to sit down and have tea and a sweet with you, and just hear about your experiences in Nashville and Russian cultures, so thank you for taking the time.

- I just want to say thank you for giving this opportunity to share some things about my culture, and also share things that I absolutely love about Nashville because Nashville does feel like home.

You know, I have kinda lost between the two homes.

Like that is home and this is home, so they're both homes.

- [Megan] Yeah.

- So thank you for this opportunity to share something about my culture.

- Thanks, Marita.

And thank you all for watching this episode of "The Little Things."

If you enjoyed it, please give us a thumbs up.

If you wanna see more in the series, hit that subscribe button.

And until next time, bye.

- [Announcer] "Next Door Neighbors" is made possible by the support of the Nissan Foundation.